Air India Limited will operate new flights in the New Delhi-Port Blair-Vizag-New Delhi and New Delhi-Vizag-Port Blair-Vizag sector from January 1 to March 24, 2018. As per the schedule, AI-485 will depart New Delhi at 5.30 am and arrive Port Blair at 9.15 am, AI-486 will depart Port Blair at 9.55 am and arrive Vizag at 11.55 am and AI-486 will depart Vizag at 12.30 pm and land at New Delhi at 2.35 pm. The flights will operate on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th day of every week.

Similarly, AI-485 will depart New Delhi at 5.30 am and reach Vizag at 7.35 am, AI-485 will then depart from Vizag at 8.10 am and arrive Port Blair at 10.10 am. AI-486 will depart from Port Blair at 10.50 am and land at New Delhi at 2.35 pm. The flights will operate on the 1st, 4th and 6th day of every week._________________

Engagement of Advisors for Strategic Disinvestment in Air India Ltd. and its subsidiaries
Air India Ltd. invites:
Sr.No.
Description
1
Request for Proposal for Engagement of Advisor(s) for Strategic Disinvestment in Air India Ltd. and its subsidiaries/joint venture

So the privatization effort is finally getting off the ground. All the very best, AI._________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

Air India plans to introduce two non-stop flights per week between Birmingham and Amritsar in the new year to meet the increasing consumer demand from the Midlands region to Punjab, Birmingham Airport said in a statement today.

The airport's aviation director, William Pearson, said the new non-stop connection will add to the existing daily direct flight to Delhi.

"With over 200,000 British-Indian people who travel to India to visit friends and relatives, and for tourism and business interests, this additional destination shows the large demand within the region for non-stop Amritsar services from the Midlands," he said.

"Air India has been a successful partner for over four years and offers great connections to India with services operated by the new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft," he added.

Air India plans to introduce two non-stop flights per week between Birmingham and Amritsar in the new year to meet the increasing consumer demand from the Midlands region to Punjab, Birmingham Airport said in a statement today.

The airport's aviation director, William Pearson, said the new non-stop connection will add to the existing daily direct flight to Delhi.

"With over 200,000 British-Indian people who travel to India to visit friends and relatives, and for tourism and business interests, this additional destination shows the large demand within the region for non-stop Amritsar services from the Midlands," he said.

"Air India has been a successful partner for over four years and offers great connections to India with services operated by the new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft," he added.

So AI is going 9 weekly from BHX? Daily to DEL and 2X to ATQ? IF so good on them. Hopefully the 2X new flights will be at a totally different time from the DEL flight. Gives people more options.

Alliance Air, plans to induct five ATR planes in its fleet in as many months and will soon roll out flights to three new destinations as part of the government’s UDAN scheme, a top official said. As of now, the Delhi-based airline flies to 46 destinations with a fleet of 15 ATR 72-600s. “We are in the process of inducting new ATR 72-600 aircraft by March next year, which will take our fleet size to 20 planes at the end of the fiscal,” Alliance Air Chief Executive Officer C S Subbiah said at a function held by JRD Tata Memorial Trust here today.

“Along with the fleet, we are expanding our route network as well. We will shortly be launching a flight to Agra from Delhi, which will be our 47th destinations, as part of the government’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN,” he said. _________________

Air India has decided to fly an Airbus 319 flight from Bengaluru to Mumbai via Hubballi, which has a seating capacity of 120. It will be additional to the existing Bengaluru-Hubballi- Bengaluru ATR-72 flight.

Sources close to the development told Express that the schedule of the new Airbus 319 aircraft is almost fixed on December 15. The flight will take off from Bengaluru and stop for a while at Hubballi before flying to Mumbai. Initially, the flight service will be for three days in a week and later, it will be made daily.

Tata Group, which runs two JV airlines in India, and IndiGo may not be the only Indian carriers eventually bidding for Air India. A top government source told TOI that other Indian carriers, especially Jet Airways, may also join the fray for the Maharaja.

"The economics of the game will change completely for whichever airline gets Air India. With its 14% domestic and 17-18% international market share, getting AI will be a paradigm shift for the successful bidder. Other airlines like Jet and possibly even SpiceJet will have no option but to bid for AI," said the top source.

A SpiceJet official said that while the airline is "too small" to bid for AI, it will decide on the same once the final terms are known. When asked the same question, a top Jet honcho said the thinking is on.

While IndiGo has shown interest in AI for spreading its wings in the medium- to long-haul international markets, Tata's relatively young and small JVs — Vistara and AirAsia India — will get an inorganic growth push from the Maharaja's domestic and foreign market share. Market insiders say Qatar Airways may back IndiGo's plan as the Gulf carrier has long wanted to have a stake in the airline. SpiceJet aspires for long-haul flights, but whether it has the financial muscle to do so remains to be seen.

Union minister Jayant Sinha on Friday said the domestic and international operations of Air India would be sold together. The government has initiated the process for strategic disinvestment of debt-laden Air India as part of efforts to revive the national carrier.

"What we will be offering through the bidding process is the integrated airline (Air India), which means both domestic and international operations (together)," Sinha, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said here.

On the disinvestment process, he said the government is still in the process of identifying which subsidiaries of Air India should be offered separately.

"Even if they are offered separately, if you want to bid for each one of them and re-integrate them, we are providing flexibility," the minister said._________________

Air India has sent a batch of 17 senior A320 pilots — who are trained for critical low-visibility operations — for Boeing command course in the midst of the foggy season, a move that has raised questions.

The decision has led to a severe shortage of senior pilots who are trained for low-visibility operations and they are required to be deployed on northern routes during the winter season.

According to an airline source privy to the development, the move raises questions as these pilots are critical to winter operations in the North. Even after completion of the ground course, these pilots would have to wait for at least 5-6 months to get simulator training as there is already a huge backlog now, the source said.

“These senior A320 commanders are CAT-II/III qualified pilots, but have been sent to do their ground classes, which will go (on) for about two months, for B787 flying in the thick of the winter.

“Air India was reluctant to send them, but when the pressure came from a Union minister, who has nothing to do with the aviation sector, the airline had to give in,” the source told PTI.

Further, the source said one of the pilots among the 17 is close to the Union minister and wanted the minister to intervene to get the command training on the wide-body plane.

The CAT-III-B narrow-body fleet commanders have been sent to the Central Training Establishment in Hyderabad for two-month ground classes on Boeing Dreamliners amid the foggy season, the source said.

Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions. Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under-50 metres.

“Moreover, after these pilots finish ground classes, they’ll have to go back to fly A320s as the Mumbai simulator facility for training is unlikely to be available to them for the next 5-6 months due to a huge backlog,” the source added.

Alleging that there is severe shortage of commanders on the A320 fleet, the source said sending away as many as 17 senior pilots at this time of the year would have an adverse impact on operations, particularly in the winter season, which is dubious for the fog.

“Many flights, including a Mumbai-Chandigarh flight, were delayed recently due to shortage of pilots trained in low visibility operations,” the source said.

Queries sent to Air India spokesperson G P Rao on the matter did not fetch any response even after a week._________________

Not really "Air India News", but still - another masterstroke from the Indian press ......

The Indian Express (Bombay) today published the article "Air India Hijack" in a section titled "Forty Years Ago".
However this incident did not happen Forty Years Ago on 25th December 1977 as they claim - it happened Forty Three Years ago, on 25th December 1974.

India's Tata Group and Singapore Airlines are open to potentially bidding for the indebted carrier Air India, a top official at a joint venture owned by the firms said on Friday.

Leslie Thng, chief executive of Vistara, a carrier launched jointly by the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines in 2015, said at a news conference on Friday that the companies were "open to evaluating bids for Air India."

"They keep an open mind," Thng said, without elaborating.

It was not immediately clear if the companies might bid jointly or separately. _________________

Not really "Air India News", but still - another masterstroke from the Indian press ......

The Indian Express (Bombay) today published the article "Air India Hijack" in a section titled "Forty Years Ago".
However this incident did not happen Forty Years Ago on 25th December 1977 as they claim - it happened Forty Three Years ago, on 25th December 1974.

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Hearing about Vinoba Bhave and Jai Prakash Narayan was such a balm for the soul. There days it is just Viruskha all over.

NEW DELHI: Disinvestment-bound Air India has terminated the services of over 400 employees who were hired by the airline on contractual basis after their retirement.

The employees affected are those hired for non-technical roles and the move follows an order from the airline's Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola.

The latest directive follows a similar order issued in August, which put on hold proposals for employing recently retired officials as well as renewing contracts for those former employees who were due for an extension.

Last year, the Union Cabinet gave its in-principle approval for disinvestment of Air India and constituted an inter-ministerial group for working on the strategy for the airline's stake sale.

"The CMD has directed that contract of the retired employees under non-technical category (i.e. excluding pilots, flight dispatchers, service engineers, OPT, OTT instructors, flight safety) be terminated with immediate effect," as per a circular issued by Executive Director-Personnel on January 5

Air India is going to increase the frequency of its nonstops to the US and Australia, apart from linking Los Angeles directly to Delhi by this summer. It also plans to tackle the frequent failure of the back-of-seat in-flight entertainment systems in premium classes of longhauls by giving personal electronic devices, like tablets, with content for the duration of the flight.
These are among the things that Air India's new chairman Pradeep Singh Kharola is looking at implementing at the earliest. "Our priority is to further improve on-time performance and increase our load factor (aircraft occupancy). Our direct flights to the US and Australia are our USP but the passenger load factor is only 50%. We will try to see how to increase that," Kharola, a 1985 IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, said.

AI uses Boeing 777 for the nonstops to US (New York, Newark, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington) and B-787 Dreamliners to Australia.
While the Dreamliners are new, issues frequently surface in the entertainment systems of the relatively older B-777. AI is going to get three B-777s by February. Two of them will be for VVIP use and the third may be used to start the Delhi-LA service.

The government will invite expressions of interest from those interested in buying state-owned Air India Ltd, after the budget presentation on 1 February, a top government official said.

The move is intended to demonstrate that the National Democratic Alliance is going ahead with the privatization of Air India despite a parliamentary panel suggesting a five-year pause.

“We will be seeking expressions of interest certainly in February,” civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said in an interview on Monday.

The invitation calling for expressions of interest from potential bidders is being drafted, and will be submitted to a ministerial group that has been tasked with Air India’s privatization, added Choubey.

In a draft report, the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture suggested that the Union government put the privatization plan on hold for at least five years and write off the national carrier’s debt, the Press Trust of India reported on Sunday.

The government has appointed EY, formerly known as Ernst and Young, to advise it on the privatization exercise, in which the invitation seeking expressions of interest from would-be bidders is the first step. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas will be the legal adviser.

The government will vet the responses to evaluate the eligibility of the potential bidders before floating a so-called request for proposal, a detailed document that “will be more precise” than the document seeking expressions of interest.

IndiGo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, and Tata Sons Ltd have shown interest in Air India’s operations.

Last week, Leslie Thng, chief executive officer of Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines Ltd, said the latter “has an open mind” on looking at Air India, noting that the national airlines has a strong brand presence globally.

“If you look at the history, Air India was in fact one of the pioneers in many of the aviation launches. Air India actually has a very good reputation in some of the markets. People know about Air India—there are a lot of NRIs (non-resident Indians) who live overseas, who know about Air India. It flies to many international destinations. The brand awareness of Air India is not weak,” he Leslie Thng added.

Air India had total debt of about Rs48,877 crore at the end of March 2017—Rs17,360 crore of aircraft loans and Rs31,517 crore of working capital loans.

The airline has a fleet of about 140 planes, with a 17% share of traffic on routes linking India to international destinations and about 13% of the domestic market.

The national carrier, which is part of the world’s biggest airline grouping, Star Alliance, also has prime slots at airports across the world as also land banks and buildings among its assets.

In a bid to woo business class passengers on its international flights Air India is considering providing laptops to its premium travellers, its Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said today.

The move is geared towards improving the airline's passenger load factor or seat occupancy in business class which often sees almost half the seats going empty. "In our long haul flights business class can be a money spinner for Air India. Our passenger load factor is only 50 per cent on these flights. We will try to see how to increase that, perhaps offer better quality of services. If our in-flight entertainment is not doing well, then we are thinking of alternatives.

Laptops to business class passengers is a possibility," Kharola told reporters.

He added that a decision is yet to be taken on whether these laptops would be offered to passengers only when the in-built video screens are not working or as an additional perk for premium travellers.

The cabin crew (who are fantastic) on all my recent legs told me that management and cabin maintenance are run by idiots who couldn't care less and pretty much tell the cabin crew to manage the expectations of passengers pissed off that (a) IFE doesn't work (or works spottily); (b) IFE is old and dated and burdensome to use by anyone who isn't frozen in time in 2003 and thinks that technology hasn't advanced since then; (c) the lavs lack ANY amenities (including soap); (d) no menus are loaded; (e) no amenity kits are loaded. And this is just in Business and First.

Who the hell wants some rando laptop? Business travelers will end up working on their own laptops. What premium passengers want is a premium product, not some random add-ons by nitwits who know nothing about long distance premium travel.

One of the older S2 aircraft. Service was courteous. Food was good but nothing exceptional. Dessert was a rock hard tart.

2. BOM-GOI 6E711 1350/1520 YCL 04Jan18

Great crew, standard 6E consistency on the flight. Junglee sandwich was average.

3. GOI-DEL UK868 2155/0030 YCL 08Jan18

The flight was 35 mins late on arrival. Food was good, but the service level has reduced to just the main meal box and one round of soft drinks. I think that's a smart move. With the current service level, they can beat 6E and 9W in the domestic market - why raise cost unnecessarily.
They need to focus on a faster scale up to offer a larger network to frequent fliers. 4 aircraft a year is too slow considering that 6E plans to add 2 a month.

4. DEL-HYD AI126 1715/1925 YCL 11Jan18

The aircraft was in a bad state. The IFE did not work on my original seat. I shifted to another seat to find the IFE non-functional again.
Food was really bad (except the dessert).
Very cold crew. People were walking down the aisle when the aircraft was holding short of the runway and the crew didn't seem to care much.
Flight arrived 40 mins late.
On a positive note, the loads were quite high due to US connections. 299/300 (3 seats blocked for crew). JCL was 40-50% full, I believe.

The resurrection of the former Air India / present ELINT 707s, perhaps ?

Air India Engineering Services Limited (hereinafter referred to as AIESL), invites bids under two bid system from eligible bidders (hereinafter referred to as service providers) for manufacture and supply of special tools for 707 Landing Gear Overhaul required at OAP Mumbai.

Home Ministry to hire Air India planes to ferry security men posted in J&K, NE

Jan 21, 2018

Air India aircraft will be hired by the home ministry to facilitate travel of personnel of central armed police forces, Intelligence Bureau and the NDRF serving in remote areas of the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir from home and place of postings, an official said.

An amount of Rs 109.84 crore has been sanctioned by the ministry to offer the air services to the security personnel during the first seven months of 2018 by hiring the Air India planes.

The Air India is expected to deploy its narrow-body jet Airbus A319 which has around 144 all-economy seats.

The sectors in which the air service will be available are: Delhi-Leh-Delhi, Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi, Delhi-Dibrugarh-Guwahati-Delhi, Kolkata-Imphal-Kolkata, Kolkata-Agartala-Kolkata, Kolkata-Aizwal-Kolkata and Kolkata-Silchar-Kolkata.

The service will end a major grievance of the personnel of the CAPF like CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB etc, Intelligence Bureau and National Disaster Response Force deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast as they have to spend at least six days of their leave only in travelling, another ministry official said.

The official said though the scheme has been approved until July 31, it will be further extended for the whole year and subsequent years too.